A technology of the present disclosure relates to a toner case and an image forming apparatus including the same.
In an image forming apparatus such as a copier and a laser printer, for example, different types of dry toner are used depending on specifications of image quality, a destination, a color of an image, or the like. Therefore, typically, adaptable toner is specified for the image forming apparatus.
When a user uses unspecified toner, a mechanism failure, an image failure, and the like of the image forming apparatus may occur. Therefore, it is required to eliminate interchangeability of a toner case that contains toner for a plurality of models of the image forming apparatus.
It is then proposed to form a protrusion to identify a model on a toner case, the protrusion having a form and a location that are different depending on a model of the image forming apparatus, and to form a recess that is engaged with the protrusion on an apparatus body to which the toner case is attached.
However, since the protrusion is generally formed of a resin material along with the body of the toner case, the protrusion can be easily cut off by a box cutter or the like. This results in a problem that it becomes possible-it should be otherwise impossible-to correctly attach a toner case obtained by cutting off the protrusion, to an image forming apparatus.
On the other hand, it is proposed to form a protrusion to be hollow and insert a cored bar in a hollow part of the protrusion. This configuration can make it difficult to cut off the protrusion by a box cutter or the like since the cored bar is installed inside the protrusion.